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"Roop tera mastana" (Your beauty is intoxicating) seems to be old school these days. Bollywood, which once placed emphasis on well-chiselled men and perfectly-fair belles, has taken to celebrating imperfections and age on the mainstream screen. Moving away from classic fairy-tale stories, Hindi cinema, over the past decade, has undergone a transition as audiences lap up authenticity, ageism and flawed off-track characters more than make-belief.
Actor Ayushmann Khurrana has to be credited to a large extent for this change in approach where colour, appearance and age does not matter any more. "We have been used to perfect heroes over the years. And for a common man, it is difficult to achieve that," he told IANS.
"Fighting with 10 goons is not easy and practical and you don't expect a person holding a nine-to-five job and from a lower-middle class background to have a six-pack. It is important to instil confidence in the masses. Otherwise they will get complexes seeing these actors on screen."
The actor, who will be playing a young man suffering from premature balding in the film Bala, wants to give confidence to the ordinary man through his works.
"Imperfections are beautiful," he said. "Nobody is perfect and you always have imperfections - in personal life or in your body or in life in general."
Actress Bhumi Pednekar, who plays a dusky girl in Bala, has always managed to experiment with her roles. She played an overweight woman named Sandhya in Dum Laga Ke Haisha for which she put on over 30 kilogrammes.
Recently, she underwent a complex prosthetic process for her role as one of India's oldest sharpshooters in Saand Ki Aankh.
Actress Yami Gautam also feels the industry is opening up. "Vicky Donor was one of those films which paved the way for the transition in new-age cinema," she said.
"I remember that we wanted to look like the stars we see on screen and wonder 'Can my hair fly like that' or 'Can my skin be like that'? It has a very aspirational value."
She believes audiences now love imperfect characters because such issues are now being openly discussed. "These films are working in the heartland because you have put the common man on the screen and are talking about issues that they usually talk about behind closed doors.
"I have not heard someone being cast or rejected on the basis of colour or appearance."
Veteran actor Boman Irani, who took the bold step of doing a film dealing with the topic of a man falling in love and getting married at the age of 45 in Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi, said age does not matter anymore.
"It (age) is not detrimental to an actor's career," he said. "I think there is a right time in everyone's life to do the right thing. I am never unhappy that I took my time. I am almost 60 (and) I am now a student learning to be a screenwriter.
"Who made the rule that you can't learn something new at the age of 60? There are no rules and timelines for dreams and wishes."
Actor Bobby Deol, 50, who is enjoying a "new innings" in Bollywood, also does not feel that age is a barrier. "Age is just a number and I think of a lot of actors who have survived the delimitation of age," he said.
"I think I am very blessed to have the energy and the focus to keep working as long as I can."
Bollywood finally seems to have taken musician John Legend's lines from the song "All of me" seriously: "Love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections."
It is celebrating imperfections and age perfectly on screen.
Indo-Asian News Service
